Review: Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata

Veda Hille, Bree Greig, Selina Martin, Dmitry Chepovetsky & Daren A. Herbert (Photo: Joanna Akyol)

Cantata Entertains but Confounds
Sing Me the Phone Book Instead
by Jason Booker

The way to judge Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata depends on how you define it (as our Vancouver review of an earlier production proves). Do you use the monstrously long title as a reference to think of it as a cantata or do you view it the way my companion did: as a song cycle featuring the words of ads posted by random strangers?

Seeing as a cantata usually sets a sacred text to music for voices and an orchestra, Do You Want… partially succeeds since it features accompaniment by Veda Hille, the pianist and composer, and Barry Mirochnick on percussion; though Craigslist ads are far from sacred and two instrumentalists hardly comprise an orchestra. Besides how often does a cantata employ humour?


For instance, why have two ensemble numbers about people seeking a roommate – no matter how amusing the metal-influenced one might be.

This leads to the notion of a song cycle: a collection of tunes with a central premise but no linking characters or voices, melodies, styles or themes. Often Do You Want… recycles a refrain (to be catchy?) or image such as the clown on stilts, or even a pattern of choreography – and this is definitely innovative and fluid choreography by Monica Dottor. Unfortunately, due to how loosely-structured the show is, the show could easily have ended three or four or five songs sooner than it did without anyone being the wiser.

In Do You Want…, no clear theme emerges because each song remains separate from the whole, rarely building to a climax or creating a variety of perspectives. For instance, why have two ensemble numbers about people seeking a roommate – no matter how amusing the metal-influenced one might be.  Instead of getting under the surface of why people place these quirky ads, composer Hille and playwright Bill Richardson simply let this multitude of characters use their own words (what other reason could there be for so many imperfect rhymes?) for a brief moment. There is no greater meaning or sense of conclusion in Do You Want… where no thought goes into what transpires beneath the surface of these impersonal personal ads on the Interwebs.

As a performance, the show soars. Dmitry Chepovetsky gets the show off to a strong start with his ode to thongs and Selina Martin and her raspy voice riotously police grammar during Flag Me for Removal. The underutilized Daren A. Herbert dances up a storm even with a euphonium in his number about a pot of chili. Wannabe star Bree Grieg receives a giggle for her penguin recitation. Aside from her bizarre sailor dress, composer Veda Hille charms – when she can be heard – with the modernist ditty, Sponges.  Even the drummer gets a tune.  The show cleverly entertains, led ably by director Amiel Gladstone who keeps the attention focused where it needs to be, uniquely finding ways for the actors to play instruments or position themselves to portray a new persona through the various levels of Robin Fisher’s warm and welcoming set.

Without any clear intention or purpose, Do You Want What I Have Got? becomes banally forgettable, nearly as illogical or impractical as setting the phone book to music. No matter how pretty the packaging or cleverly entertaining, without a rationale for the piece, does this Cantata need to be seen? Maybe for you, but I don’t need what these folks have on offer.

Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata continues until March 3, 2013 at Factory Theatre